Morgan le Fay is, in Malory's Morte d'Arthur Arthur's half sister, the daughter of Arthur's mother
Igrain and her first husband, the Duke of Cornwall. She is also presented as an adversary of
Arthur's. She gives Excalibur to her lover Accolon so he can use it against Arthur (a story retold in
Madison J. Cawein's poem "Accolon of Gaul") and, when that plot fails, she steals the scabbard of
Excalibur which protects Arthur and throws it into a lake. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight she is
presented as the instigator of the Green Knight's visit to Arthur's court, partly motivated by her
desire to frighten Guinevere.

Her enmity towards Guinevere has its origin in the Vulgate Lancelot,
where Morgan is having an affair with Guiomar, Guinevere's cousin, and Guinevere puts an end to it.
Despite the motif of Morgan's enmity towards Arthur and Guinevere, she is also presented as one of
the women who takes Arthur in a barge to Avalon to be healed. This view of Morgan as healer has
its roots in the earliest accounts of her and perhaps to her origin in Celtic mythology. In the Vita
Merlini (c. 1150)

Morgan is said to be the first of nine sisters who rule The Fortunate Isle or the Isle
of Apples and is presented as a healer as well as a shape-changer. It is to this island that Arthur is
brought (though Morgan awaits him and heals him rather than actually fetching him herself). Morgan
proclaims that she can heal Arthur if he stays with her for a long time. Morgan is also said to be the
wife of King Uriens and the mother of Yvain or Ywain.

Morgan rarely appears in post-medieval
works--until the twentieth century when there is a renewed interest in her character. Sometimes she
is conflated with Morgause and made to be the mother of Mordred, as is the case in John
Boorman's movie Excalibur and a number of modern novels such as "The mists of Avalon". Fay
Sampson has made her the central figure in five novels. One of the most interesting modern
portrayals of Morgan appears in Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex where, after a life devoted to evil, she
decides to become a nun because of her belief that "corruption were sooner brought amongst
humankind by the forces of virtue." Morgan actually does become a defender of good in modern
stories like Roger Zelazny's "The Last Defender of Camelot" and Sanders Anne Laubenthal's
Excalibur.